J.R.

Skomaz is spot on. First mistake NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER allow anyone whoever they claim to be authorised by to take your vehicle away, keep hold of it and make any assessor come to you, as you have already found most of the time they just sit behind their computer, if you have not already removed all your valuables before they stole your car from you then do so ASAP but its probably already too late. Your car not theres will be sold either through a Copart auction or to the salvage dealer for an agreed percentage according to the write off category, typically they will recieve 40% back, so the car you insured for £20K will only cost them £16K as a payout (which the TP's insurers will settle anyway, a lot less once they have screwed you with the valuation. Keeping hold of the car keeps you in the driving seat but you will have to put up with recovery trucks turning up regularly saying the insurance company have instructed them to collect their, not yours but their vehicle, the efforts that they go to show you how desperate they are for you not to be in control of your vehicle, if they dont offer enough then simply refuse to settle, they are the ones who want to close the case not you, you can also negotiate buying the salvage on your terms not theirs which in the case of your vehicle may well have been a very good solution, you would have kept the car that you can't find a replacement for, had it repaired professionally and come out with a few grand in your sky rocket. Sadly now they have possesion of the vehicle they will even exploit that avenue. Assume that everything they tell you is either a lie or made up on the spot because they either dont know the answer or dont want to tell you. Clue, - the DVLA do not value vehicles!!! They do very well out of every total loss claim because your policy is voided and you have to take out a new one, you keep your notional NCB but they just jack up the premium for the new vehicle and justify it with some Bravo Sugar about the DVLA, if you try to get insurance elsewhere you will be loaded because you have either a claim pending or have had a total loss claim, they dont care that it wasn't your fault, its just an opportunity to make money. Your insurer will not be a penny out of pocket because the Third Party has accepted responsability, this is a money making opportunity for them. If you keep your eye on the adverts you might be lucky enough to buy your car back after it has been repaired, I expect even with a write off category marker on the log book it will cost more than they have offered you.

I would be worried that the previous owner does not know the difference between a rear subframe and a lower suspension link! If he is to be believed then he has slavishly Lanoguarded and Snake Oil treated the suspension arm or arms and completely ignored the very rusty proverbial Elephant in the room right beside it. I would be looking at the exhaust clamp, all the suspension bolts that will at some time need removing to replace shock absorbers and springs, the front & rear brake disc backplates and the inside hidden friction face of the brake discs, these are all areas where corrosion has caused me problems or cost money. Also look for zinc inclusion scabbing on the door bottoms, almost certainly likely to be present, if not look for repairs, overspray etc.

Ventilation, there are membrane flap vents behind the bumper to expel air and for when you close a door.

Yes but so is mine and probably every other ungaraged one, I think mine lived by the sea. If you look at that one again look at the clamped sleeve exhaust joint between the front and rear sections, I bet you that there is nothing left of the clamps. Thus far the corrosion on mine has only been a problem regarding the exhaust sleeve and undoing any suspension bolts, there was a thread on here of another very rusty example that same rear lower arm where the shock absorber mounting had ripped clean away and the race was on between whether the spring would make a bid for freedom before the rear hub and driveshaft did. If you buy it then keep an eye on it as I do.

First aid kit I reckon.

Thats todays laugh of the day for me.

A stone could break your windscreen at any time, driving it home from first purchase or 8 years later like mine (luckily its still a chip) the percieved quality you speak of would not prevent an impact at 6 weeks or even 6 hours from cracking the screen if it had the right combination of mass, hardness, sharp edge and velocity. The luck of the draw, bad in this case does not mean a windscreen is poor quality, if it happens repeatedly then the probability goes up and up and would indeed indicate their windscreens being produced in the same way as brake discs and backplates! It would not surprise me to learn in the course of time that you were in fact 100% correct, all the more reason for me not wanting a newer model, I have yet to read of anything that would be of benefit to me.

That would be very worrying to me and was a big concern when I was experiencing the frequent regens. Which reminds me to check my oil level more often now that it is not self diluting! An oil change is imminent but the last one must have been done after the rollback. Your ECU update sounds like a Diselgate fix by stealth, deny the vehicle is affected then quietly modify them before it can be proved that they also cheated emissions. From my experience the fix massively increases the amount of EGR activations and their duration which in turn requires more frequent regens, I stopped my EGR by using an Emulator/Simulatior but the ECU still thinks it is happening so it did not reduce the frequent regens until I had the "fix" rolled back. For me and my engine (EU5 I believe) I think they were both good decisions, they cost probbaly £350 or £400 but I think will save me far more in the long run, just the reduced anxiety os worth the spend, I could not drive a car knowing it was diluting its oil, that I had to extend journeys and drive for no reason other than to let the ECU do its thing and to worry that any long journey might be the one where the EGR cooler gave up of the DPF finally got completely clogged. Having VCDS to monitr things helps. Sorry for any typos

Intake tract clogged up from the EGR port through the throttle body, mine was returning similar MPG and asthmatic even for a 108hp engine until I cleaned it out, the venturi was down to the size of one on a lwanmower. It was shaking on switch off which brought me to the problem, throttle valve AKA anti-shudder valve, I thought the DMF was going. Car was much livelier and responsive afterwards, as much as an 108hp version can be but fuel consumption decreased massively. sorry for any typos

I should start collecting these Bravo Sugar quotes to write a book. Why is it mechanics and most Frenchmen do not have the ability to say "I don't know" and instead make up or recount totally unconvincing rubbish?

Don't know, do you have a sticker in the boot showing the "fix" was done, or is your vehicle perhaps EU6 with Adblue?

Someone who knows more? Must be another mechanic 😆 Many mechanics will (believe they) know more than anyone else and trot out no end of memorable lines like that.

Yes I had exactly the same when i moved to this house, most trips are about that length, just long enough for the conditions to be right for a regen but not long enough for it to complete. It would spend a week doing it even after just compleying a 1000km drive towing a far bigger and heavier trailer than I should at wide throttle opening most of the way. It bacame a joke so I paid to have the emissions fix rolled back, I had a reference point in my UK neighbour with the same engine but he had steadfastly refused the emissions fix, his car never had the fans running on shutdown and mine was like yours doing it constantly unless I drove back out again to allow the regen to complete and then 200 miles or less later it was doing it again, it would regen twice during an 800km autoroute trip where it would have been in a constant passive regeneration. A year now since the roll back and 15k miles and I have noticed maybe 2 regens while driving and one interrupted one. The cars are perfectly suited to your journeys if the emissions fix software is not installed.

Just on price alone you should give VAG a swerve, why pay top money for K-rap? I use the cheapest discs that I can find, rarely more than ten or fifteen pounds or euros, I find that my (now) moderate driving style leads to glazing and lack of bite, ultimately poor response in an emergency stop and vibration, my cure is the same as KSL but more extreme, I go to a deserted straight downhill stretch close to me and do a series of high speed full emergency stops to a standstill, initially the brakes wont even lock to trigger the ABS, do it too much and you will get brake fade, the ideal is just short of that with smoking pads, keep driving to cool them down again, if you don't then do not apply the handbrake, the heat soak will cook the rear calipers. The difference in braking response before and after is astonishing and I have never had rusted discs since doing this, in fact I have reclaimed a few on new purchases in the past that were scored and rusted to hell by simply driving in my back then usual lunatic style for a couple of weeks before having the time to replace them. This last couple of years I have been regularly towing heavy trailers and have not needed to give the good news to the brakes, after 40K miles the discs still look freshly ground like new.

Could you not have spliced in a section of straight pipe either side of the kinked part using the same sealing of the joints? I would be concerned removing and refitting the elbow joint if access is that difficult and concerned that I could break off the stub of the sunroof drain, perhaps I have misinterpreted the photos. Sorry for any typos

That sort of spreading rust is more likely to take a hold on a vehicle where the barkes are rarely and gently used, no good deed gose unpunished. Sorry for any typos

Snake oil. Your RPM is not changing because you have an ECU with 100 times the processing power of the Apollo spacecraft taking readings from multiple sensors and doing its job of maintaining a steady off load engine speed. Because you havn't started out on the premise that you are reading marketting Bravo Sugar, if it ca, go up or down ask yourself what is inbetween those two states and how the snake oil is clever enough to make an engine speed either rsie or fall but not remain the same. Under many conditions EGR is not commanded, and it sure will not be able to operate without being able to measure the resultant drop in mass airflow (you disconnected the hose remember!) so you might just as well have emptied the tin down the toilet.

Did the mechanic divulge his wisdom about what he considers incorrect in the desin of the backplate which would cause such corrosion? It seems to be the week for mechanics speculation on front brake disc dust shields!

We should start a club, what should we call it? The so disrespectfull it's untrue all about me zero experience on every topic under the sun expert Troll club gets my vote!

Yes absolutely sure. Its hidden away in the main menu page, it would be a sledgehammer to crack a nut, easier to use a cheap fault code reader than faff around with a laptop for the limited functionality you would have on other vehicles.

They certainly should be embarrassed about the whole affair and be doing their utmost to expedite the repairs ASAP, sadly it probably does not enter into their consciousness. I dont see how delaying the repairs is saving them money especially if as you hope they have provided a courtesy car.

I had to open it in another window and enlarge it for my current vision so no complaints form me!

VCDS can be used as a generic OBDII code reader on any other manufacturers vehicle. Can you give some examples of a nice generic non subscription OBDII device that can perform advanced functions on a range of vehicles please, I would certainly consider one for other vehicles.

You havnt tried every methid, all you need to do is open the bleed valve and let gravity do the rest. The master cylinder is a very simple affair without the multiple seals and non return valves of the past, when it is in the upper position, closed as you incorrectly call it, there is free passage of fluid from the brake master cylinder reservoir through to the slave cylinder, the pistion sits behind the port hence the ability to gravity bleed. What may have happend if you have raised the pedal from the lower position by force is that you have pulled the plastci pushrod out of its retainer in the plastco pisyon and that the piston is stuck in the depressed position blocking off the fluid port, there is no return spring to the piston, its pushed back by the force on the fluid from the cluch diaphragm, there is a control loading spring and cam on the pedal which will push it to the floor in the lower poart of its tarvel and to the top in the upper part. have a feel around with your hand for the pushrod and see if its flapping around. sorry for the typos, cat see what I am yping.

That is not aluminium but a special grade of self destructing steel, you can see a rust mark on the far right. They do look to hzve some sort of plzting though which is a step in the right direction but it looks like the material specification is still for cheese!